Work Text:
One thing the Distortion did not like was Its current vessel. The second, highly related, was Its current feelings towards the Archivist. Not the position, not what it represented, but the person holding it. Grumpy, exhausted, always finding himself tangled up in one Entity or another.
It kept saving the man. Nearly entirely why It did not like him. Partially why It was not a fan of one Michael Shelly.
When It looked at the Archivist, It felt. What It felt, while concerning in its own right, was not the issue - the issue was feeling at all. It was a What, not a Who, and Whats do not experience significant emotion relating to Whos that are becoming Whats, ones with tired eyes and messy hair and…
Michael Shelley had so many feelings, though, and they were all distracting in their own ways. Anger, at the Archivist, at the position and what it represents. That one, at least, It could understand, could process and deal with accordingly. It didn’t much like Archivists, either, and that stemmed from the same place Michael’s anger did (singing and doors and wandering and dancing and mirrors and Becoming and exultation and pain, such pain). It was the other feelings, the things It recognized as longing and admiration and hope and fear, that It struggled with. No vessel prior to this Michael had been so emotional, so filled with conflicting thoughts and desires, and It was entirely unprepared.
…Worst of all was the creeping sense that It was beginning to feel, too, and in much the same ways.